Amal Clooney Joins High-Profile Case in Myanmar

Clooney attends an event titled 'The Fight against Impunity for Atrocities: Bringing Da'esh to Justice' at the UN in March of 2017.

By Drew Angerer/Getty Images.

Amal Clooney has another case on her hands. Reuters reported on Thursday that the human-rights attorney will be representing two Reuters reporters, Wa Lone, 31, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, jailed in Myanmar. Clooney has joined the team representing the journalists, who have been in custody since their arrest on December 12 of last year.

A court in Yangon has been holding hearings on whether the reporters, who had been working on an investigation into the killing of 10 Rohingya Muslim men in western Myanmar, can be charged under the Officials Secrets Act. Per Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, the men were arrested for “illegally possessing confidential government documents.” But, Clooney said via a statement released by her office, the men are innocent.

“Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo are being prosecuted simply because they reported the news,” she said. “I have reviewed the case file and it is clear beyond doubt that the two journalists are innocent and should be released immediately. The outcome of this case will tell us a lot about Myanmar’s commitment to the rule of law and freedom of speech.”

Prosecutors and defense lawyers will speak on the motion to dismiss the journalists’ case on April 4.

Clooney often takes on international human-rights cases. In 2016, Clooney confirmed that she was representing a young Yazidi woman on behalf of thousands of victims of genocide.

“I wish I could say that I was proud to be here, but I’m not,” Clooney said during a September 2016 speech about the Yazidi case at the United Nations. “I’m ashamed as a human being that we ignore their cries for help.”

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